Episode Description
Marketing strategist Angela Gerber breaks down how solo and small firm attorneys can create effective marketing strategies without breaking the bank. Learn why you don’t need to advertise on every bus in town, discover which marketing channels actually deliver ROI, and get practical guidance on measuring your marketing success. Angela shares invaluable insights on email marketing, social media presence, and creating a sustainable marketing plan that works for your specific practice. Perfect for attorneys looking to market smarter, not harder.
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Episode Transcript
ANGELA: [00:00:00] It can be easy to just think, Oh, that didn’t work or, Oh, I’m not seeing the numbers. I wanted to think about what’s a real objective for you to see to where it feels like there’s an ROI for you in your business.
LAUREN: Welcome to a different practice. I’m your host, Lauren Lester, and I’m obsessed with all things business well being and optimizing the practice of law for solo and small firm lawyers.
I started my solo practice right out of law school, built it from the ground up, and now work part time while earning well over six figures. I’m here to share tangible, concrete tools and resources for ditching the legal profession’s antiquated approach and building a law practice optimized for profit and efficiency.
Think of this as grabbing coffee with your work bestie, mixed with everything they didn’t teach you in law school about running a business. Pull up a seat, grab a cup and get ready to be encouraged and challenged. This is a different practice. Welcome back to a different practice today. We’re diving into part [00:01:00] two of my conversation with Angela Gerber, founder of the marketing apothecary and certified story brand guide.
If you missed our last episode, pause and go back to listen. You’ll get the most out of our conversation today by having that foundation. If you need a quick refresher, last time Angela walked us through the StoryBrand framework and showed us how to transform complex legal services into compelling narratives that genuinely connect with our potential clients.
Remember, Angela is a marketing strategist who combines her expertise in storytelling with meticulous attention to detail to help businesses cut through the noise and engage their ideal clients. Through the marketing apothecary, she creates custom tailored marketing messages that help businesses not just tell their story, but make it resonate.
In today’s episode, we’re building off our last conversation and getting down to the nuts and bolts of legal marketing. We explore how to create a marketing budget that makes sense for your firm. Angela shares her insight on which marketing strategies deliver the best [00:02:00] return on investment for solo and small firm attorneys.
We tackle that burning question about social media presence. Do we really need to be everywhere? And discuss the key metrics that we should be tracking to ensure our marketing efforts are paying off. Plus, Angela reveals some of the biggest marketing pitfalls she’s seen attorneys fall into and provides practical solutions for those of us who are juggling limited time and resources.
Whether you’re looking to fine tune your existing marketing strategy or build one from scratch, this episode is packed, and I say packed, with actionable advice that will help you market smarter, not harder. So grab your notebook because you won’t want to miss a single tip from this marketing masterclass.
Let’s dive in. Here’s the second part of my conversation with Angela.
ANGELA: Thank you. It’s so good to be back. I appreciate it, Lauren.
LAUREN: So last time we chatted, we went through the StoryBrand framework and how it’s a really excellent marketing tool to be able to [00:03:00] connect with potential clients, talk to them because they’re the hero of the story and how we can kind of use that framework in our law firms.
But I wanted to take that and then build on it and talk today about If we get our messaging down, how then do we turn it into marketing activities that maximize ROI so that we’re getting the most bang for our buck, especially for us as, you know, solo and small firm attorneys, we don’t have thousands and thousands of dollars every month in a marketing budget.
A lot of us, myself included, are doing this on our own and we have limited time. So we really want to make the most of that time. So I wanted to start out with just getting your take on How should an attorney, a law firm owner, kind of approach marketing budgets or just marketing activities that are going to maximize ROI?
Is there a strategy we should be looking at?
ANGELA: Great question. And I think that’s some of the pitfalls I see sometimes with business [00:04:00] owners and, you know, with attorneys is like, we, we get really caught up in what we see some of these other really big organizations doing and these other companies who have.
Huge marketing dollars and tons of money to just really invest in that. Those sort of brand building sort of feel good activities. And when you don’t have that kind of money, which is the brand majority of us, you know, we need to be really savvy about what we’re doing. And it’s really important just to not get caught up, I think, in what everyone else is doing and just stay really focused on.
Making sure that you’re being smart about what you’re doing for yourself. It really starts with really creating clear business goals. If we don’t know where we’re going, it’s really hard to pave the road to get there, or even know if we made it when we, when we did. So I think, You know, it’s really important that we start by being clear.
What are some clear specific measure of measurable goals? Are you going to increase revenue by 25%? Are you looking to [00:05:00] add 20 new clients by this date? So just being really clear. On those goals is sort of the step one. Step two then is looking at your messaging. As we talked about last time, leaning into that storytelling aspect is so powerful for attorneys because again, it really helps them cut through the clutter and, and really focus on those problems that only lawyers can really solve for their clients that are in really difficult traditionally situations.
So look at your messaging. You also want to be clear on who is your customer. You know, it’s really important that you’re thinking about, okay, well, who am I, what are my goals? Who am I trying to, to grow my business? What does that ideal customer look like? Again, being really specific on that sort of target customer will really help as you’re mapping out that goal.
Cause if you’re, Small business owners. If you’re kind of focusing on B to B, you’ve got to be really clear on who is [00:06:00] that B to B business owner. If it’s families, you know, making sure that you’ve got a lot of clarity around that target customer. And then you want to start to think that’s where then the budget starts to come in, because once you’re really clear on.
What your goals are and who you’re trying to reach, then you can start to think, well, what are the channels that I need to utilize in order to reach them? And that’s where you can start to look at your budget. You know, what do I need to potentially spend to bring in those types of clients, get them into that sort of prospecting lead generation phase.
And then you think, okay, well, from here. Now I’m moving them into sort of potential clients. So how do I nurture potential clients once I have their information and then sort of transitioning into that, like, okay, now they’re a client. How do I work them through those phases? So, you know, there’s a lot of steps there, but I think it’s [00:07:00] just.
Making sure that you’re taking the steps versus just jumping straight into sort of tactics and things is really going to help you create not only a marketing budget, but a plan that really is connected to your business goals.
LAUREN: Yeah, I’m so happy that you mentioned the trap that we all fall into. And I do this all the time of like, what is everyone else doing?
There’s a bus that goes past my house several times a day. And every morning as I’m getting my tea ready, the bus goes by and there is a law firm here in town that is, that has the whole bus. They’re the whole side of the bus. And I’ve caught myself being like. Shit, do I need to be on a bus? Like, is this what, is this what we have to do?
Like, how do I get clients? But that was so helpful to hear you say, well, take a step back and think about what are my business goals? Cause if I want to get 20 new clients, I don’t need to be on a bus to everybody in Denver. Right? Like that’s a much smaller number. And [00:08:00] then you said, knowing who, Your customer is.
And so the law firm that advertises on the bus is a, is a personal injury law firm. And so they have a very wide net right of like potential customers where for me, if it’s small businesses or it’s families with little kids and they’re wanting to do their estate plan, right, that’s, I don’t need to market on the bus.
So that was so helpful to just remind myself is like, I don’t have to be on the bus. Really think about what do I need for my particular business. So would you say there are specific marketing strategies? And I’ll say that in terms of like email campaigns, billboards, right? Traditional print media social media.
Are there certain strategies that tend to work better for ROI? Or is it again, going to be dependent on the law firm and what they’re looking to do?
ANGELA: Yeah, I would say a couple things, you know, I’d laugh about the bus analogy because I think it’s so true. It’s like, it’s that like [00:09:00] shiny object syndrome or like the swirl, like, oh, like everyone’s doing that.
And like, you know, I think people really get caught up in that, you know, Oh, I’ve got to be on a bus. Oh, I need to be on TikTok because everyone’s doing reels all day long and making all these like dancing videos, but you’re going to waste a lot of time effort and to your, you know, bus, a lot of money on the wrong things.
And so. Yes, it is very dependent on the practice and who their ideal customer is and how they’re trying to reach them. But I think it’s really important that we don’t overlook the fundamentals when it comes to our marketing. And that’s where if we’re, if we take everything in stages and we’re building the blocks one on top of another.
You know, we’re on the right path versus just saying, Oh, I’m going to go spend all this time and money on tick tock and putting a bus ad out there. So again, I think it’s just thinking about how do you build relationships with people? You know, that’s something that’s really important to keep in [00:10:00] mind, looking at our customers and, and thinking, how do we create that curiosity?
How do we get them enlightened and excited about what we do? How do we get them ready to commit? So sort of leaning into those phases of how we actually build relationships and connect to our customers is really important. There’s going to be some variances along the way, but I would really encourage All practices, they really need to be really clear on your target market, get your messaging really clear so that you’re consistent.
I said it before. Good marketing is an exercise in memorization. So being clear, being consistent is really key. And then how do you use your website? How do you use different lead nurturing and referral programs to grow your business? Websites are not just meant to be there and just sit there really is an integral part of your business and your marketing strategy.
And the same goes for email. Email is often [00:11:00] really overlooked. When we think about marketing, people are like, Oh, email, everybody emails. I just need to post on social media. Again, that’s not where you’re going to maximize your budget. And you have to think really smart and hard about how much time and money you’re putting into those things.
So, you know, I would think really clear and again, stay focused on some things that are just sort of those tried and true and those really foundational pieces that every business needs again, to really create those strong relationships with your potential customers.
LAUREN: I would say I think email does get overlooked, and I have recently made an effort to do more email marketing with my practice for the time investment, the ROI, and I haven’t tracked it in terms of data, but it feels anecdotally that it is a bit more bang for My buck.
And I think it’s because of that. It feels more like a personal connection, [00:12:00] even though, yes, there’s so much email out there. It’s still an email that says, Hey, Angela, here’s what I’m doing this fall, you know, personal, but here’s also some information about estate planning where I could put that same information on a video or posted on social, but it doesn’t feel as, as much of a personal connection.
So I think that is one easier way to lean into marketing is to really. Cultivate those relationships that you had or folks who have come across your firm to have that email exchange in place.
ANGELA: Yeah, 100%. And I mean, they say, you know, email ROI is like for every dollar you invest. Your return is 36 to 42.
And so that’s a huge return on your investment. And you got to think too, you know, you send someone an email. I mean, we can all be honest. We all have our email open all day, every day. So you’re at your opportunity to get someone’s eyes on your email is so much better than social media when. They’re doom [00:13:00] scrolling.
Like, did you, did the algorithm change? Like what type of engagement did you have? And you’re just, you’re really fighting to control something that’s completely out of your hands. Whereas email, you just have a lot of control. Same with your website, you know, same with creating really high value, like lead magnets or lead generators.
Especially when it comes to attorneys. You guys have so much knowledge and expertise creating those sort of high value, high quality content pieces will just really serve your ideal clients. Well, because they’re like, Oh, they, they have so much value. They’re giving me a free resource. They’re really supporting me in sort of a time of need.
And again, I think it’s a very different, you know, you’re not getting people impulse buying from like an Instagram ad. You’re targeting someone who has a very specific problem that you guys can only, you know, only you can uniquely solve. So again, I think those types of activities, you know, [00:14:00] referrals, lead magnets, partnerships, that relationship side, I think is going to see a much higher ROI than some of these sort of shiny objects, high dollar.
social media tactics that’s really easy to get caught up in.
LAUREN: Is there a general benefit to social media? Like, is it something where a law firm can say, I just have no social media presence in today’s market? Is that going to have a detrimental effect? I understand not leaning into like spending a bunch on ads. Cause yes, these are not, Impulse buys. We’re not going to, you know, have the, the Instagram ad that gets a bunch of traffic because it’s a cool, shiny new widget that somebody is selling.
But at the same time, I wonder because social media is so prevalent, I would think if I’m looking for a law firm and I’m vetting them, I’ve went to their website, I kind of want to get a sense of what they’re about and they have. No social media. I don’t [00:15:00] know if as a legal consumer, if I would be like, I don’t know, are they legit?
Because everyone has social media. Like, do you find that you don’t have to necessarily do all the stuff? Everyone looks like they’re doing if it doesn’t work for your business, but you can’t shun it entirely.
ANGELA: Agreed. I mean, I feel like it’s sort of that necessary evil. You know, I don’t know if I personally would go so far as to say, like, if they’re not on social, then they must not be for me.
But I think it’s just again, it’s more about that value and that education that you provide through your social media channels. And the other trick with social media is just, again, who are you trying to reach and being really smart about the platforms that you’re on. I see a lot of people get caught up in, I have to be on all the platforms, posting all the time.
And that’s a really big trap, not only for time, money, and just effort that you’re going to put into that. So, again, I think it’s being really smart. Who am I trying to reach? What [00:16:00] platform makes the most sense? Obviously, if you’re targeting more B2B, you know, you’re targeting other businesses, LinkedIn is going to be a great platform for you.
Facebook has seen a big resurgence nowadays with sort of broad range of demographics. There’s a lot more you know, Facebook groups becoming really popular again. So again, I think it’s just being really smart about where your audience is and then just creating a consistent way to show up. That’s the other thing is if you’ve got a clear message, think about how are you going to execute that clear message across all of your platforms and try to, again, not, don’t be everywhere to everyone.
I always encourage clients. To be on one or two maximum social media platforms because again, you can show up you can engage Which is another really important part of social media now. It’s not just about putting up content It’s about being proactive and engaging on the [00:17:00] platform and then sharing your valuable content So it’s just a balance.
Like I said at the beginning, I think it’s kind of a necessary evil at this point But I would really encourage you to be smart about Where your customer is leaning heavily into only one or two platforms and you don’t have to post every single day, but create a cadence and a content calendar so that you know, one to five times a week or dependent, whatever you can consistently do, set that schedule and maintain it.
Because if you can only post twice a week, Post every Tuesday, Thursday because you’re again teaching your audience. I know that on these days that I’m going to get new value, new content, and they’re going to look for it. So those are just some tricks that I would encourage with social media because it can quickly be A rabbit hole.
LAUREN: Yeah, that takes a lot of the pressure off. I think there’s certainly the big names in the field, which to learn any of them super well is a huge [00:18:00] time investment. And then you start to get, I mean, the social media landscape is very wide. And so you’re like, do I need to also be on Snapchat and threads? I mean, you could go down that rabbit hole.
So it’s really nice to hear, you know what, Pick one, maybe two, learn those well, commit to those, and that’s where you’re going to see the most return.
ANGELA: Yeah. And the other thing I would say is just look at it as a piece of your marketing plan and where does it fit in and, and does that serve where you need to move the needle and what your original business goal was in the first place?
Cause you, you might find that it’s a little lower priority than you think it is. which is often the case. It might be a higher priority for a period, but it’s just making sure there’s that balance of where am I stuck in my business or where am I trying to grow my business and what could I execute and measure with my social media that would feel like it was getting an impact.
You know, the [00:19:00] other thing I would just encourage people to do in all of this and especially social media. Measure what you’re doing. Tracking and measuring your marketing is so valuable. Sometimes I joke, it’s like, you get, it’s really easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater because we’re like, oh, it didn’t work.
But sometimes it just might be, you didn’t have the right subject line for your email. You know, you didn’t have the right headline on your ad, like try to test and measure and set those metrics with anything you’re doing. Cause again, I just think it’s, it can be easy to just think, Oh, that didn’t work.
Or, Oh, I’m not seeing the numbers I wanted. You know, you are going to spend a lot of time and energy on social media. You’re not going to. Get 150 new leads with one or two posts. That’s just not real. So think about what’s a real objective for you to see on social media to where it feels like there’s an ROI for you in your business.
LAUREN: We live in such a, everyone wants to go viral. Like that’s the only measure of success is, Oh, all [00:20:00] of a sudden I have a million new followers. And it’s like, that’s unrealistic a to happen. And B, if you really think about like, would that actually benefit me? Is that going to. result in revenue? Probably not.
What are some of those measurements we should be looking at? Those numbers that we should be measuring to be able to then tweak our marketing activity?
ANGELA: I would say start simple because sometimes some people are better with numbers and measurements than others. So don’t overwhelm yourself. You know, think about, like I said, if you are on social media.
What is something you could measure? You know, typically it’s likes, follows, engagement. I would highly recommend that you start looking at that. If you are leaning into email in particular, look at your open rates. Like are, are people opening the first email? Are you consistently having to send another batch because people didn’t open the first email?
You know, do you have links in your [00:21:00] email? Are people clicking? Did you have a clear call to action and someone followed through with that call to action. So, you know, think of things from start to finish as well. So if it’s an email, you know, step 1 is open. Step 2 is click. Step 3 might be they scheduled a consultation.
So think about measuring something from start to finish. Not just sort of, oh, well, they opened it. Okay, well, but did anyone do step two and three? So I guess I would think about those types of things. Same with your website, you know, just be educate yourself on your website traffic. You know, your website should work for your business and it should really bring in business.
Generate interest, generate leads. So whether it’s just website traffic, looking at how much time that they’re on site, did someone bounce off your site? Do you have sort of errors? How many clicks did you get? If you’ve got schedule a consultation, you know, looking at some basic numbers [00:22:00] like that. So those are just some sort of stats in that range.
But like I said, there’s other like that conversion rate at each stage of your business, I think is really important. So really thinking about like, what is the journey that my clients take from start to finish and where might they get caught up along the way? Okay. That’s kind of going bigger picture in terms of your marketing plan.
But where did someone come in and find me? How much awareness do they have? Did they get really excited? They got on my email list. They did all this stuff and, but then they never converted into being a client. So think about, you know, that before they’re a client, could potentially be a client. And then when they convert it.
So setting up some metrics sort of along the way as well can be really valuable. You’re going to start to spend money on advertising. I don’t know if you want to go that far, but obviously there’s some metrics for those people as well. If you are going to start to spend [00:23:00] money on advertising, you know, you really want to be smart about how much money am I spending on on the ads?
How many leads did I get? So that I know what was the cost to acquire that lead? Like, did I spend a thousand dollars and I got 10 leads? Or did I spend 1, 000 and I got no leads? And so you want to think about that sort of cost per lead as well. So there’s some different metrics that as you get into sort of the paid arena, you want to start to look at, but like I said, just even just thinking about, well, what, what marketing tactics am I using and how am I looking at.
What will I measure for success, but I think that bigger picture like that conversion rate at each stage can be just something really valuable that can give you a lot of insight into your business because it might not be That you don’t have enough awareness, you might have tons of leads, but they’re not converting.
So then you need to look at, okay, where, [00:24:00] what, what could I test? What could I tweak? What could I do differently to try to get someone to actually convert? Because sometimes people just think, oh, I need more people in my funnel. But the problem might be this, the step to the convert.
LAUREN: It’s so helpful. And I appreciate that you brought it back to the customer’s journey, which ties right into the storytelling, right?
Like it all is interconnected, but to really think about what is their journey. From awareness and then learning more about you to finally committing and really dissecting that in different phases, because it’s not just somebody learns about my firm and then they commit like there’s most most consumers are not going to do that.
So we’ve got to be able to parse out their process.
ANGELA: Yeah, well, they say, like, typically only 3 percent of people are ready to buy from you the second they see something from you. That’s a really narrow pool. So the more that we can do to sort of nurture, [00:25:00] show up, be consistent, provide value, provide education, You’re broadening your audience to people who may not be in that magical 3 percent pool, then it’s 30%, then it’s 40%.
Like, okay, you’ve got a lot more opportunity to convert when you’re thinking about those sort of phases and then just taking it into account, you know, especially when it comes to legal services. I mean, sure, if someone’s in a total bind, of course, like they might call you right now. But there are other parts of the legal process, depending on your type of practice, that it just might not be such a, Oh my God, I need it right now.
So I think that’s where that customer journey can really come into play and really make a difference about where you are investing your marketing time and your marketing dollars.
LAUREN: I think it’s a factor too that we are a service industry that is generally higher value. Like it’s not, I’m in the target line and I’m [00:26:00] going to buy this 3 gum.
Like that’s an easier quick decision to make. These are oftentimes services that can be thousands of dollars. So the buying process and the decision making process for our consumers is going to take longer, just like We don’t show up on the car lot and go, great. I’d love to spend, you know, 40, 000. I’m ready.
Like it takes some time to really thinking about that. It’s not going to be instantaneous when we’re looking at our numbers. How often should we reassess? What are things we should look at to say, Hey, this strategy may not be working. We may want to do something different here so that we avoid throwing The baby out with the bathwater, not pivoting.
Oh, shoot. This one didn’t convert. I’m going to change my whole strategy, but we also don’t want to go two years and go, well, we maybe should have made a change six months ago. Yeah.
ANGELA: Yeah. Darn. I wish I would’ve looked at that. You know, I think, like I said, there’s some things that I would encourage you just to sort of keep [00:27:00] an eye on as you’re doing, and you are doing a lot of email marketing, something like that.
What I typically say it, I, I think looking at things in a month tends to be the most valuable. It depends on your frequency. You’re consistently posting on a social media platform. You’re, you’re going to be spending a lot of time just looking at it all the time. Of course, you can keep an eye on things.
Two weeks to four weeks, I would say is sort of a window. If you do have a specific campaign going out, like I said, and you’re leaning into email, you want to watch that as it’s in progress. Because again, you don’t want to let that get too static. Keep an eye on your website traffic again, two to four weeks.
Just keep an eye on that. Because again, you don’t know if something’s broken or something’s happening if you’re not monitoring it. So I think Certain things you’ll want to look at on sort of a two to four week basis. If you’re in the throes of like, I’m running a paid ad, I’m running like a targeted email [00:28:00] campaign.
You want to sort of monitor that as it’s happening. But I think just in general, a couple of things I would say. Even just setting up a quarterly review, three months in particular is going to give you a lot more time to say, well, did this work? Like how many emails did I send? Did I make changes on my website?
And suddenly my traffic went up exponentially or it dropped exponentially. Hey, I spent this much on maybe some paid ads. What ROI did that get me? So the quarterly reviews would be another sort of milestone. I would really encourage people to keep an eye on, because you’ll just get a little bit more data.
And you’ll be able to look at that a little bit more. Cause sometimes those really short term things, there might be just something happened here or there, and suddenly it throws your numbers off and that’s when you can go, Oh crap, I’m just going to change all this and start over. So just setting a schedule, I guess, would be something that I would strongly encourage people to do.
Some signs though, that it’s [00:29:00] time to pivot or maybe something isn’t working. You know, when you do have those numbers. Like my email suddenly have stopped getting opened. So again, maybe it’s the subject line. What else were you doing in the email that was different? Maybe something, your website analytics suddenly went way down.
When you’re looking at, you know, Google. And suddenly your cage isn’t showing up anymore. So I think just looking for signs like that might be, it’s time to, to, to consider pivoting, maybe you’ve got declining engagement is obviously a really strong factor on any of those platforms, like. If you, again, are posting on social media, geez, I used to post all this content and get all this engagement and suddenly no one feels like I’m talking and no one’s listening.
Again, those are things where you just want to go back to, okay, who is my ideal client? Is this the right platform? What could I test and adjust? [00:30:00] To see if this is still the right place before I decide maybe this is a lever I don’t need to pull anymore. Those are some things that I would just keep an eye on.
Obviously, if any, there’s regulatory changes in your industry, you know, you’re just not growing anymore. Those sort of stagnation numbers that you can start to see might just be, again, signs it’s time to assess, not necessarily just go, okay, well, I just give up on this strategy. What changed? What did you change and then looking at that in a little more of a holistic manner will, will, will put you in a far better place than just saying, Oh, we’re down.
Let’s stop doing that.
LAUREN: Yeah. And one thing I’ll add that I am somewhat surprised that a lot of attorneys that I talked to don’t do is track where folks find them. Yes. Like just when you get a new lead, where did you hear about us? Because that can also help in those numbers. Like you’re saying, Oh, did I run an [00:31:00] Instagram ad and I got a bunch of folks from Instagram?
That’s probably a good sign versus I have no idea where the last 10 leads came from. Not as helpful.
ANGELA: Yes, no, that’s, that’s an excellent point because I think you’re suddenly getting all these referrals or you joined a new group and everyone’s coming from there or to your point, maybe you put a new lead magnet on your website or you ran something.
Yeah, making sure that you’re tracking where they’re coming in is super important. So yeah, great point. Totally agree.
LAUREN: If someone has Let’s say nothing in place. I’m sure most folks listening have at least a little something, but if somebody was starting from square one and they wanted to ramp up their marketing efforts, but they wanted to do it in an effective way, they’ve got their kind of business goals. They’ve walked through the process.
What would you say is the best place to start? In general, obviously everyone’s business is going to be a little bit different, but if you just could kind of generally [00:32:00] say most folks will have some good success doing X to start. Where, where would you guide folks?
ANGELA: Yeah. I mean, I would say kind of even reflecting back to our first conversation is really leaning into the story about your business.
You know, I think people forget how powerful our words are and it can just, Oh, well I do X and everyone needs this attorney or you, you know, estate planning. You said that like, well, I’m an estate planner. People need estate plans. Like they’re just magically going to show up on my door. Yeah. I would really encourage people not to overlook the power of a really clear, compelling story for your business.
And one that really leans into that unique problem that, that you can solve and that your position to solve in your business. Step one is going to be just critical. And then step two, we’ve talked a lot about today is that creating a plan for your business that makes sense. Like don’t jump straight into [00:33:00] tactics.
Think logically about, okay, what do I have a clear message? What is my target customer? How am I going to show up and where? And those things can be really simple, even just again, website, you know, do I have a website? Does my website work? Does my website reflect that clear and consistent message? That I’ve, I’ve just built for my business.
What are ways that I can implement lead generation and lead nurturing? So again, that’s that lead magnet. What can you add on your website that just shows that you’ve got a lot of value to offer? You’re really there to educate your clients. And then again, it’s a great way for you to capture email addresses and then really start to nurture those leads.
So I would say some of those are really fundamental. But again, just it’s, it’s all about taking those, those steps. And like I said, that story and that strategy is just the most important thing that you can do for your [00:34:00] business. And even when we’re starting these plans, it can feel like, well, I don’t know, is that enough?
But if you, if you skip to, well, I’m just going to start doing all these emails, but you haven’t even figured out, well, what are you going to say? And is where does that fit into your process? Or? Oh, well, I’m going to do this, but I’m just going to start posting a bunch of content on social media. Okay, but have you figured out?
Do you have the right story? Do you have the right target audience? So I think those are just some really important things. That I, you know, I encourage people not to overlook the foundation. You know, you don’t just put up a house without pouring the foundation and that messaging and planning is going to be really fundamental.
Start there, but again, just think about the levers that you can pull that really create that no, like, and trust factor and, and some of the things that you can use for marketing that work for you again, email works for you. So you spend a little bit of time [00:35:00] setting it up. It’s super easy to automate. It’s.
Super easy to stay connected to your clients throughout their process throughout that customer journey that we talked about that doesn’t require you going and posting three posts a day on Facebook, etc. So think about things that you can make work for you in your business. If you spend a little bit of time up front.
And that’s where that lead magnet, that email marketing can be really critical for you. And then when you do think about your social media, again, keep your focus super narrow so that you’re just not stretching yourself too thin.
LAUREN: Going back to that foundation, I think is so critical because To me, it feels, it makes the rest of the process feel easier because you always have a starting point.
Like maybe I, I do my research and I really think about my target market and video is really going to connect with folks and I can really give a lot of value. Well, if you just, like you said, jump into creating videos, you kind of feel like you’re swimming in the deep end [00:36:00] without a life jacket, whereas if you can go back and say, okay.
Who is my market? What’s the message that I want to say? How can I parse that message into 12 different videos? But it’s essentially the same message. It just gives you a starting point and you don’t feel like you’re starting from scratch every time you want to maybe build. If you get your email campaign down and then you want to start doing more on LinkedIn, you don’t feel like, Oh, now I’m at step one.
You can build off of that messaging. Yeah.
ANGELA: Yeah. I just think it’s really. It’s that like, you got to walk before you run, you know, and it’s really easy to think I’ve got to start running, especially when you’re getting your business going and we’ve all been there and you’re wearing a million hats and doing a million things.
But I always encourage people don’t overlook those fundamentals because they will serve you in the long run far greater than just jumping into sort of tactics that you’re going to spend a lot of time and energy on and feel like you’re. Kind of lost in the noise and spinning your wheels.
LAUREN: Yeah. And as very busy business owners, I can [00:37:00] probably speak for most of us that that, that tactic doesn’t sound good.
I don’t, I don’t want to be spending my wheels on anything that’s not happening. I
ANGELA: haven’t figured out how to add more hours to the day. So, you know, I don’t think anyone else has.
LAUREN: Other than, like, spinning our wheels and just jumping in and not laying the foundation down, are there any other pitfalls that you have seen folks run into that we should try and avoid as we’re building up our marketing efforts?
ANGELA: Yeah, a couple of things. I would just say, like, don’t be everything to everyone. Focus freely on your niche and your practice and the problem that you solve and your sort of uniqueness. You know, I think it’s, it’s really easy for us to feel like we have to cast that really broad net and try to be everything to everyone.
Don’t feel like you have to do that because especially when you’re getting started, it can feel like you have to do that because it’s that, like, step So just stay focused, like focus on your niche, your problem that you [00:38:00] solve, be consistent in your marketing. I see a lot of people be really inconsistent.
Well, I didn’t have time this week, so I didn’t do anything. You’ve got to set up a system and a process for your marketing or it is just going to fall to the back burner. Like if you’re an attorney, You’re an attorney because you want to practice law and help people overcome something in the legal domain.
You, you didn’t start a marketing business, but if you, if you don’t create a plan and a process and a system, you’re going to be really inconsistent with your efforts. And again, that’s where it’s going to be hard because we go back to that, like 3 percent of people ready to buy right away. Well, if you didn’t catch them magically in that one thing you did, you’ve got a long road to, to get them back into that no like and trust bucket.
So just don’t be, inconsistency is, can be sort of, you know, a killer. Just again, we’ve talked a lot about that customer journey. So just [00:39:00] thinking of that whole process from how does it, how does someone become a potential customer to all the way to like, they’re your raving fans. Forgetting to think about that entire process from start to finish can get you spending a lot of time and energy on something that may not be the problem in your marketing.
So it’s really important to think of that. holistic sort of start to finish journey that your customers go on from when they first hear about you, like I said, to being sort of that raving fan. The last thing I would say, and we’ve talked about this a little too, is like just measuring your results. Even if you set up a few small metric, being really mindful of measuring what you’re doing.
Can serve you so great in the long run, because again, you just start to have that visibility to know what’s working and not working. Where did my leads come in through, as you mentioned, Lauren earlier, so just thinking about having those metrics in place [00:40:00] is really going to serve you. And I think it’s really easy for people to just.
Do things and not measure them. And so that not measuring can really cost you in the long run.
LAUREN: Especially like you said, when we get shiny object syndrome and we’re like, Oh, this firm over here is doing these great videos. I need to do videos. And then I do them for a week and that I don’t, yeah, all of the things happen all at once.
It’s a perfect storm.
ANGELA: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I think, like I said, the other thing is just. Create a plan. Marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming, but it sure can feel like that. And so making sure that you actually have a plan, I joke. Sometimes it’s like field of dreams. Like if we build it, they will come, Oh, I’ve just started this practice.
Magically everyone will appear. But again, if you just take the time, build the plan, set the pieces in place, you will be able to create a. marketing that will make an impact for your business, but [00:41:00] it won’t happen overnight and it won’t just happen because you put a sign out front.
LAUREN: Not in today’s markets when there’s so much in the markets.
I mean, I think the legal profession has always had a good amount of competition, but certainly now with everything else, consumers are bombarded with, we do have to make sure that we are taking all the rights into account. Steps to get in front of them and nurture that potential client to become a client.
I have learned so much in chatting with you. I can’t even tell you, I so very much appreciate your practical approach to it. Just breaking it down, giving real concrete examples. I’m excited to go back and do some tweaking in my own marketing plan. I have, I’ve. I’ve done a few of the pitfalls. I will say, I will own up.
I’m, I’m not, it happens, but I’ve been talking with you. I feel like it’s doable. Like I have a plan in place. It’s not as overwhelming as it felt even an hour ago. And so I can’t thank you enough. Please remind all of our listeners where they can learn [00:42:00] more about you and get in touch with you. Should they also need some marketing help?
ANGELA: Well, thank you. This has just been wonderful. And yeah, I just love talking about marketing and just, I don’t know, it should be fun, right? We’re all working. We spend a lot of time together, you know, let’s, let’s have a good time. I would love to connect with anybody. You can find me, obviously my website is themarketingapothecary.
com. I do spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. So if you just look up Angela Gerber on LinkedIn, you can connect with me personally there. And then I’ve also got an Instagram page for the Marketing Apothecary. So you can find me there as well. I mentioned this before, but I do have a weekly email. It’s all about adding tips and tricks.
And like I said, having a little bit of marketing fun. So you can sign up for that on my website as well. It comes to you each week and it’s quite entertaining. We joke about things like marketing with a magic eight ball. Or how to market like a farmer instead of a hunter. So, you know, it’s a, it’s all about value and making it really fun for [00:43:00] everybody, but also giving you guys some practical tips that each week that you can just really think about your marketing in a way that just makes it a little easier and approachable.
LAUREN: Everyone go sign up for Angela’s newsletter, connect with her on LinkedIn and or Instagram. And thank you so much, Angela, for your, your time and wisdom.
ANGELA: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. This was awesome.
LAUREN: I’m over here giving you a virtual high five because you just finished another episode of A Different Practice.
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